McDonald's already offers free Wi-Fi in some other countries, such as Belgium and Italy. McDonald's currently charges U.S. customers $2.95 for two hours of wireless Internet, although AT&T customers get free Wi-Fi.

No Purchase Required

McDonald's said that, in addition to no hourly charges, no food or drink purchases will be required. In fact, in some cases users don't even have to be in the restaurant. Some customers report that wireless is often accessible in the parking lot of McDonald's restaurants.

In 2003, McDonald's started offering Wi-Fi in its 75 San Francisco Bay Area restaurants, in 10 New York locations, and in 140 locations in Singapore. Originally, there was a $4.95 charge for two hours of service.

Free Wi-Fi has become a kind of loss leader, where companies provide it to attract customers to locations or services and, hopefully, promote goodwill and up-sell to paid offerings.

For instance, in the fall Microsoft started providing free Wi-Fi at thousands of hot spots across the U.S. if a user tried its Bing search engine at least once. Google is offering free Wi-Fi at nearly 50 airports in the U.S. as part of an arrangement with Boingo Wireless.

'An Awful Lot of McDonald's'

This is in addition to Google's free Wi-Fi on all Virgin America flights. The service at the airports and Virgin America, however, only lasts until Jan. 15. Users can donate to specific charities during sign-in, which Google will match up to $250,000. The company noted that about 100 million people will be traveling through airports through January.

And, for one year, Yahoo is giving away free Wi-Fi throughout New York City's Times Square.

Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, noted that the availability of free Wi-Fi at McDonald's could be very useful for business and family travelers, since there are "an awful lot of McDonald's, even more than -- 'gasp' -- Starbucks."

He noted that McDonald's has been steadily expanding its menu to provide more fare around coffee, and even offering a "McCafe" area in some of its locations. The attempt to provide more café-like offerings, Greengart said, in addition to this free Wi-Fi, could induce customers to stay longer than they otherwise might.

Customers could be either business users or family members. "Keep in mind," Greengart pointed out, "that Wi-Fi is not just for laptop computers," but also for many smartphones, the iPod Touch, PSPs, and other devices.

However, even with more free Wi-Fi hot spots, Greengart said business users in particular will still need cellular data plans if they expect to be online regularly while traveling.